Mohawk Mountain Makes A Comeback

A decade ago, as the state wallowed in a prolonged recession, Mohawk State Forest was among a group of parks and forests closed to save money.

Forest staff, already minimal, was reassigned. Maintenance stopped. By the mid-'90s, it was hard to find a picnic table you'd want to sit at, if you could find one at all.

Fortunately, the state's fortunes reversed with the boom of the '90s, and Connecticut parks in recent years have received a gubernatorial hug of the most sincere form: cold cash.

Mohawk, a mountain in Cornwall with something for everyone, is back, and it's getting rave reviews.

Harvey Offenhartz of Cornwall, who often hikes in the forest, noticed an old rug tossed in the snow by the side of the road to the summit on a recent morning. Within an hour, it was gone, whisked away by a forest employee.

``I think they do a fabulous job,'' Offenhartz said.

A woman who often cross-country-skis through the forest was pleased to relate that the access road was plowed promptly after winter storms. ``After they've done the main roads,'' she added.

Who can complain about that?

The 2.7-mile drive to the summit is graced with picnic tables tucked into the hillside, ready for the first warm day of spring. At a scenic overlook with views to the north and west is a large, comfortable wood bench. All of this has come in the past two years, and it has made Mohawk Mountain a cozy destination, one likely to attract more people as word of its sprucey and spruced-up status gets out.

Mohawk is not Hammonasset Beach, however, and never will be; there were only about 30,000 visitors last year, many who came to hike for a few hours or gaze at the Litchfield Hills from the paved expanse at the top, elevation 1,683 feet. From here you can see west to the Catskills in New York, west and north well into the Berkshire range, south and east to the surrounding Litchfield Hills.

There is a commercial ski area on the mountain, leasing its site from the state. On weekend days, especially, the ski area is alive with the sounds of skiers and the mechanical ski lifts carrying them uphill. By Vermont resort standards it is small, but it is accessible, the lines for the lifts are not excessive, and it has terrain for almost everyone. Anyone who has skied in a snow-starved winter will be interested to learn that it was here that ski-area snow-making machinery was invented.

The rest of the mountain is quieter. Here, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing and snowmobiling are popular in winter, while hiking, picnicking, nature study and fishing dominate the summer. The Mohawk Trail, which two decades ago was part of the route of the Maine-to-Georgia Appalachian Trail, crosses the mountain, as does the Mattatuck Trail. In winter, those trails and a network of old roads in the forest become ski and snowshoe trails.

About halfway up the mountain on Toumey Road, Mohawk Mountain Road comes in from the left. Follow Mohawk Mountain Road a short distance to a trail opposite park headquarters; it leads to the Black Spruce Bog, a natural feature rare in southern New England.

The bog is in its final stage of succession from a 40-foot-deep, water-filled glacial hole to its present status, covered with black spruce, white pine and hemlock trees growing in the remains of peat mosses, sedges and other plants that have accumulated over thousands of years.

The trail first passes through mountain laurel and hemlock, then reaches a boardwalk built over the peat bottom. On a clear winter day after a snowstorm, this woodland world is three colors, the deep blue of the sky, the white of the snow and the varied, assertive greens of the spruce, pine and hemlock. You'd swear you were in Vermont.

Black spruce, common in northern New England, are unusual in Connecticut. These are the spindly spruces rising from the peat like spikes. In summer, pitcher plants, which are carnivorous, can be found, along with sundews, cranberry and creeping snowberry.

There's a narrow boardwalk over the peat that can be discerned even in winter. Stay on the boardwalk, and in summer don't dig up the unusual plants.

Mohawk is very pleasant in the warm months. On weekdays it often is quiet. The forest includes many of the tree species found in Connecticut. You can find juncos, those little birds of winter in much of the state, at the summit in summer.

Birdseye Brook, which comes off the mountain, holds wild, native brook trout, which tend to run small but are beautifully colored. It also is stocked with 7- to 10-inch hatchery trout. Mohawk Pond, a small pond on the east side of the mountain, is stocked with brook, brown and rainbow trout. In winter, it is fished through the ice.